Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
Management of acne Lehmann H P, Andrews J S, Robinson K A, Holloway V L, Goodman S N Authors' objectives To provide a comprehensive review on the management of acne. Searching The search utilised several electronic databases from inception to 1999, including the CENTRAL Register in the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, OLDMEDLINE (from 1960 to 1965), EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO amongst others. Details of the searches were given in the report. In addition, the reference lists from key articles were checked and key experts were consulted. Only full articles published in English were eligible for the review. Study selection Study designs of evaluations included in the review Only randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs were considered for the review. There were 259 (94%) studies of a parallel-group design, 15 (5%) crossover, 30 (11%) 'split-face', and 22 (8%) parallel studies with matched controls. Specific interventions included in the review Studies of first-, second- and third-line treatments for acne were eligible for inclusion in the review. The included studies were of 140 different treatments, which were classified as: cleansers, keratolytics, topical antibacterials, keratolytic/topical antibacterial combinations, topical retinoids, topical antibacterial/retinoid combinations, oral antibacterials, oral antibacterial/keratolytics, oral antibacterial/topical retinoids, oral retinoids, anti-androgens and other. All individual treatments are listed in the review. No single control intervention was specified as an inclusion criterion; 250 different pairwise comparisons were included in the review. Participants included in the review Patients with acne were included in the review. Studies of patients with complicating co-morbidities such as endocrinopathies, and specifically, chloracne, rosacea, acne venanta, acne fulminans and acne necroticans, were excluded.
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